Arsenal to submit £21m offer for German international

According to reports in Germany via TeamTalk, Arsenal are ready to formalise their interest in Schalke midfielder Leon Goretzka by submitting an opening offer worth £21m.

Arsene Wenger is facing a hectic summer as he looks to tie down key players to new contracts and bring in a world class striker to turn us in to title contenders again so signing a new midfielder should be low down on his priority list.

However, it looks like the boss is still working on strengthening his midfield options as TeamTalk are citing reports coming out of Germany that claim we’re ready to step-up our interest in Goretzka.

The report says Arsenal have identified the 22-year-old as a key transfer target and are hoping to fend off interest from Tottenham and Juventus with a formal £21m offer.

It remains to be seen whether Schalke would be willing to do business at that price but manager Christian Heidel has publicly insisted that the player won’t be sold this summer.

Heidel is quoted as saying by TeamTalk:

“Leon won’t be allowed to change clubs this summer. He will remain at Schalke beyond this summer.”

Despite Heidel’s protestations, Goretzka is still being tipped for a move this summer after being a rare shining light in what was a disappointing campaign for the Royal Blues that saw them finish 10th.

Goretzka has been with Schalke since joining the club in 2013 and is now considered one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the Bundesliga while he’s also broken in to the German national team squad.

Our reported interest is intriguing as I thought that if we did sign a central midfielder this summer it would be a young deep-lying playmaker to act as a long-term replacement for Santi Cazorla and Goretzka doesn’t particularly fit that bill.

He’s more similar to Aaron Ramsey so it looks like Wenger is looking for more competition for Rambo in the middle of the park unless he sees our Welsh superstar moving further up the pitch [replace Ozil if he leaves?].

Wenger will not buy anyone unless Sanchez and Ozil leave. He is completely ‘anal’ and will not buy Lacazette, Mbappe, Lamar, Goretzka or anyone. Wenger had no control of this ‘anal’ behaviour. He has already signed his annual freebie. He will panic buy on Transfer Deadline Day. Why?….he always does. A Wenger cannot change it’s spots.

I think people are overlooking a massive problem for the club. Under new rules a clubs wage bill is not allowed to be more than £7m than it was the previous season and less than £19m more than it was 3 seasons ago.

As for the list supplied by anon, ox is not really a central midfielder whilst wilshire and cazorla are predominantly injured. I also think that xhaka is considered a deep lying playmaker in the cazorla mode. However, apart from coquelin what we don’t have is a really strong defensive midfielder, that is the position I would look to strengthen. However the most important move is up front.

We need to flush out a number of old legs that have been unable to win title. Rambo, wilshere,Walcott. I think it would be stupid to allow Ox go. He was the next best player after Sanchez last season. Same old way of doing stupid things. Freaking tired of the club’s unserious approach to doing biz and improving the club.